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Dessert

Apple and Custard Pancakes

A pancake made with apples, eggs, cream, and cinnamon, fried and served with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple and Custard Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs well, then add the cream and cinnamon (or almond) for flavor.

Cook and serve

  1. Cut the apples into thin slices and fry them in butter until slightly browned, turning them over.

  2. Pour the egg and cream mixture over the apples and fry until light brown.

  3. Carefully turn the pancakes over and serve with sifted sugar on top.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the cream mixture and set into a tender, custard-like layer when fried.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the egg layer soft rather than dry.
Apples
Provide the fruit filling, softening and browning in the butter as they cook.
Butter
Fat for frying that adds flavor and browns the apples and pancake surface.

The step that matters

Pour the egg and cream mixture over the apples and fry until light brown. Eggs set as they heat, so cooking over moderate heat until just set and light brown keeps the custard tender. Too much heat can scorch the surface before the center sets.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, sugar, cinnamon, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, sugar, cinnamon, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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